Gloria Culver has been appointed interim dean of the School of Arts & Sciences for the coming academic year. She will serve from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015. Culver will take over from Joanna Olmsted, who is stepping down after seven years as dean of the school.

In making the announcement, Peter Lennie, dean of the faculty of AS&E, said, “I am delighted and very grateful that Gloria has taken on this important assignment. She has been an outstanding chair of biology and brings a wealth of valuable experience to this key position. I’m much looking forward to working with her.”

Culver, professor of biology, has chaired the department since 2010. She has been on leave this past year. Olmsted noted that Culver has strengthened core areas of the department through key junior hires and through continued refinement of a curriculum that serves large numbers of undergraduates.

“Gloria has done an outstanding job as chair,” Olmsted said. “I’m confident that she will bring the same strong leadership to the School of Arts & Sciences.”

Culver’s research focuses on the assembly of ribosomal machinery essential for growth of all cells. Olmsted said that by focusing on bacterial ribosome, Culver has contributed to understanding how infections might be controlled through selective inhibition of specific control points of ribosomal assembly. Culver’s work has been continuously funded by NIH since she began her independent career in 2000. Her work has also been funded by the American Cancer Society and NSF, and she currently serves on the NIH Molecular Genetics A Study Section and will beginning chairing this panel in the fall of 2014.

Culver joined the Rochester faculty in 2007. She had previously been an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology at Iowa State University. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1988 from Ithaca College. In 1994, she received a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Rochester.

As Lennie had announced previously, there will be a national search for a permanent dean. He said that he expects to appoint a faculty committee to undertake the search later this summer.